For decades social scientists have observed that Americans are becoming more selfish, headstrong, and callous. Instead of lamenting a cultural slide toward narcissism, Transcending Self-Interest: Psychological Explorations of the Quiet Ego provides comprehensive research on both the problems of egocentrism and ways of transcending it.

The editors have assembled a group of contributors who are helping to reshape how the field of psychology defines the self in the 21st Century. Their theories and research suggest two paths to this transcendence:

At the end of these converging paths lies a quiet ego—an ego less concerned with self-promotion than with the flourishing of both the self and others.

Readers will find in this volume inspiration not only for future work in psychology but also for their own efforts toward personal development.

Table of Contents

Contributors

Foreword

Preface

Introduction—Heidi A. Wayment and Jack J. Bauer

The Psychology of the Quiet Ego—Jack J. Bauer and Heidi A. Wayment

I. Putting the Ego Into Perspective

The Lure of the Noisy Ego: Narcissism as a Social Trap—W. Keith Campbell and Laura E. Buffardi

A Terror Management Perspective on the Quiet Ego and the Loud Ego: Implications of Ego Volume Control for Personal and Social Well-Being—Spee Kosloff, Mark J. Landau, Daniel Sullivan, and Jeff Greenberg